No one in the history of the world ever had to travel to the place of his birth to pay taxes. The concept is not only preposterous, it is just stupid. In my opinion, the Bethlehem story was fabricated to comply with Old Testament prophesy in regards to the Jewish messiah.
The individual, in this case, was actually born in Nazareth, the hometown of his biological parents, Mary and Joseph. If the travel to Bethlehem is essentially a fable, anything related additionally to the story cannot be believed either, such as kings, precious gifts, angels, stars, etc.
Since they had no idea when this individual was born, they had to come up with a fictitious date. They decided to steal the Roman pagan holiday of the winter solstice and chose Dec. 25, which was close enough to the winter solstice. The Roman holiday was an eight-day affair, so they even stole this idea and renamed it the Christmas octave.
I believe the virgin birth myth was created when they decided to admit gentiles (pagans) into the new Jewish cult. Pagan religions at the time were rife with stories of sexual contact between pagan gods (Zeus, etc.) and virgin humans, and they thought this would appeal and help attract pagans into the cult. Some religious scholars think Jesus was a very strict Jew and would never agree to admit pagans into his newly formed Jewish cult.
Larry Josephs
Penn Township, Westmoreland County